Surgical Care

At California Pacific, we are committed to providing the highest quality of care and reporting publicly on our performance. The following comparison measurements have been chosen by government agencies and other organizations as measurements of high quality medical care for some of the most common and costly conditions that hospitals treat. They measure whether important, recommended medical treatments are given to achieve the best results for patients.

Hospitals can lower the risk of complications after surgery by making sure patients get the right medicines at the right time. These quality measures show some of the standards of care.

Note: Our Quality data is submitted to different reporting agencies in different ways. Data/information that appear on California Pacific's Quality web pages may be assigned either to individual or combined campuses at California Pacific based on a set of complex rules, such as hospital license numbers and Medicare identification numbers.

Surgical Care Measurements: Oct-Dec 2011

Antibiotic within 1 hr of incision

CPMC - Cal/Pac/Dav - 100%

CPMC - St. Luke's - 100%

National Average - 97%

Percentage of surgery patients who receive preventative antibiotics within one hour prior to surgical incision.

Patients can develop infections when they undergo surgery. Hospitals take several steps to prevent infections, including giving a preventative antibiotic right before surgery.

Antibiotic selection

CPMC - Cal/Pac/Dav - 96%

CPMC - St. Luke's - 100%

National Average - 98%

Percentage of surgery patients receiving appropriate antibiotics.

The appropriateness of antibiotics depends on the type of procedure being performed and assessment of the patient. By selecting and giving antibiotics that are consistent with current guidelines which are specific to each type of surgical procedure, hospitals can significantly reduce the risk of an infection after surgery.

In most cases, it is not necessary to continue giving patients antibiotics more than 24 hours after the surgery. Giving this medication beyond that point increases the risk of side effects and can cause bacteria to become resistant to the medication. .